Waymo robotaxis are getting lost and waking residents in east London because of their reversing sensors and “hideous” siren sounds.
The autonomous vehicles have been mistakenly driving up and down Elder Street, a cul-de-sac in Spitalfields, in the early hours of the morning for more than a month, says the Daily Telegraph.
Several driverless taxis have run into difficulties mapping out London’s streets and been observed driving erratically. In April, one of the vehicles drove into a crime scene in Harlesden where police officers were responding to a double stabbing.
Waymo insisted that the car was under the control of a human at the time, as the cars had a human sitting in the driver’s seat in case of an emergency while they are in the mapping phase. The company has already apologised to residents of Elder Street for the nightly disruption when videos first emerged of it happening in May, but residents say the problem has persisted.
A Waymo spokesman said that it had blocked vehicles from entering Elder Street, but they were able to use another connecting road, which also had a dead-end. The company added that its white vehicles were then forced to “initiate multipoint turns to exit”.
Waymo said it had blocked further roads in the area “to prevent future traversals” on Elder Street and that it would continue to monitor its driving.
Westminster is one of 19 London boroughs in which Waymo vehicles are being trialled.
Its city council was previously warned by Hugh Brennan, its chief transport adviser, on March 20 that autonomous vehicles could “behave unexpectedly” and potentially crash if their sensors failed to detect road signs covered by foliage. Mr Brennab raised concerns about whether the council would be prosecuted “in the event of a serious collision” caused by a sensor failure.
The London Assembly transport committee heard expert evidence on Tuesday about how autonomous vehicles could impact Londoners.
Dr Nick Reed, the founder of Reed Mobility and member of the Department for Transport’s science advisory council, said:
“The evidence from US cities, we’re seeing an 80-90 per cent reduction in crashes compared to human drivers. But London is very different to US cities so you have to be careful about comparisons.”
(Picture: Olga Gonzalez)